Making Sure Your Family Is Ready for Severe Weather

2/22/2019 (Permalink)

Making Sure Your Family Is Ready for Severe Weather | SERVPRO® of East Central Austin - SERVPRO of East Central Austin Blog

Making Sure Your Family Is Ready for Severe Weather | SERVPRO® of East Central AustinWhile we receive advanced severe weather warnings as a general rule, there will be those occasions when we will not. Fortunately, there are things you can do and safety tips to follow that will ensure the safety of your family and help you be prepared for various severe weather occurrences.

How to Create the Family Severe Weather Plan

An important way to stay ahead of the weather is to have an established family emergency plan put together and ready.

If you have already established an emergency plan with your family, make sure that it is reviewed and discussed regularly, especially at the beginning of the various weather seasons so that everyone knows exactly what to do.

If there is not a family emergency plan in place for your family, here are some things to take into consideration when creating it:

1. How will emergency alerts and warnings be received?

We live in a day where we rely on smartphones to gather information and keep in touch with family, and it is easy to receive emergency alerts and warnings on smartphones equipped with a weather app or Google. This way you quickly receive emergency alerts, providing you with valuable time in severe weather situations. However, keep in mind warnings and alerts are also still broadcast over radio and TV.

2. What are the storm shelter options?

When living in a tornado-prone area, the best place to take shelter is in a basement or the lowest part of your home in an interior room away from windows, doors and outside walls or corners. Be aware, however, that tornadoes aren’t the only weather circumstance that requires a form of storm shelter, and you can get more information about more of the situations that call for them by visiting ready.gov.

3. What is the evacuation route?

Have you looked over multiple evacuation routes in the event of evacuation due to hurricanes, flooding and fires that can force you from your home in a hurry? It’s wise to have multiple routes just in case one is impassable, and don’t forget your furry family members. You will need to find a place that will let you bring and stay with your pets along the way.

4. What are your methods of communication?

As mentioned earlier, it is easy to rely on cell phones to keep in touch with your family, but in some circumstances, that won’t be possible. Cell phone towers can be damaged by weather, phones may be lost or left behind, and there’s a huge possibility that there will be no power to recharge your cellphone batteries.

Your family will also need an emergency communication plan in place and a designated safe meeting place to meet at in case you are separated from each other.

If a storm does cause damage to your home or business, don’t hesitate to call your friends at SERVPRO® of East Central Austin to get the cleanup and restoration process started.